Weekend Treasury

Black and white and red all over ...

This weekend's Treasury is a feast of black, white and red - simple, striking and a great colour combination. Have a good weekend everyone!

Kiss - 8x10 Origina... ellemoss $20.00	Eco-Chic Necklace -... LaAlicia $25.00	Palm in the Sky fin... digitalartgall... $25.00	Stop Trying To Make... nearmoderndisa... $4.00
3 panel Canvas art ... adamoritiart $199.99	Sign and Line - 11x... ArtByAmarose $30.00	Canvas Photo, Ancie... HoneySicleStud... $47.50	BLACK and WHITE red... AntsPerspectiv... $12.00
CRIMSON PATH fall f... TheDecoriumStu... $40.00	Black White Red COW... filofashion $22.00	Leaf - fine art b... CameraQueenPho... $35.00	Black White and Red... amalfigirl $12.00
London - The Phone ... illuminatedlun... $28.00	Irish Red - Origin... liamparkinson $25.00	Ruby red elegant go... DarkEleganceDe... $31.00	In A Savannah Garde... jesspeterson $18.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

My Man in the RAW

Another good thing about holidays is all the time you have for doing the stuff you love. While we were in Cornwall recently we spent the mornings lazing around the caravan while the dog slept off the previous day's walking so I got out the lap top and tried to learn a little bit more about Photoshop Elements.

Although I've been working my way through a book on Elements, I needed a bit of inspiration so I decided to get myself some digital photo magazines and try out the video lessons on their free CDs. I bought three magazines (it's probably cheaper to do an evening class!) but here I'm just going to talk about one lesson in Digital Photo magazine - how to process D-SLR RAW photos in black and white to create a gritty looking portrait.

I persuaded my hubby to pose for a portrait - not hard as he loves having his picture taken. This time I set my camera up in the RAW setting. Taking a serious portrait felt quite strange even with someone I know so well - it was difficult getting him to keep a straight face! I tried suggesting bad things for him to think about (the worst was drowning kittens - we are animal lovers honest!) but sadly this just led to more hilarity and not really the gritty look I was after. We did eventually manage to be serious and I ended up with some great pictures to practice with.

Raw files are made up of uncompressed data, which means that you can make powerful adjustments without losing quality. So instead of just converting your colour pictures to mono, which can sometimes produce quite a flat image, you play with the settings to create a much more interesting, high contrast picture that shows more depth and detail. This was my first portrait - both before and after:

I was pretty pleased with the results so a few days later I had another go and I think that the second portrait is my favourite so far:

I'd like to try this out on more portraits and other black and white images as I love the detail it brings out.

If you're interested in the technical stuff here's what I did:

Open your photo in Photoshop Elements and the Adobe Camera RAW interface will open. These are the settings I used but you may want to make some adjustments to suit your own photo. It may sound fiddly but it really takes very little time.

Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left to convert the image to black and white. Then set the Temperature to about 3500 to increase the dark tones in the photo. Increase the exposure slightly to +0.35 then turn Contrast to +60 and Clarity to +100. Set the Blacks to 10 and then slowly move up the Fill Light slider stopping just before you see halos appear on the high contrast areas of the image (zoom in if necessary to check it's OK) - in my case it was around 30. Click on Open Image to take the shot into the main Photoshop Elements interface.

Use the Dodge tool to go over the eyes (setting Range to Highlights and Exposure to 5% and using a 65px brush) - paint over the irises and the whites of the eyes to brighten them. Sharpen the image by going to Enhance-Unsharp Mask and set Amount to 40%, Radius to 20px, Threshold to 0 levels, and click OK. Click Ctrl+J to create a duplicate Background Layer and then go to Filter-Other-High Pass. Adjust Radius to 5px and click OK. Then go to the layers palette and click where it says Normal - choose Soft Light from the drop down menu.

There you have it! If any of you have a go please post your results under Comments - I'd love to see them!

Golden Days Treasury

My latest Treasury on Etsy - Golden Days - inspired by dreams of endless sunshine, sandy beaches that stretch as far as the eye can see, limoncello sorbet, yellow roses and golden bangles worn with a floaty white dress.

Gilded - Handmade G... JarosDesigns $26.00	ODYSSEIA - Stunning... Grainyman $25.00	Wrapped ring pureshapes $15.00	Golden Afternoon 8... SSCphotography $25.00
Discounted set of 2... LotusStone $75.00	Ginger Red Rooibos ... prunellasoap $4.50	HadarVintage Bukhar... HadarVintage $1399.00	Matte Gold Moon Pen... juliesadorabow... $31.00
Golden Urban - Set ... AurumJewelry $149.00	Golden Medallion - ... faerieglass $16.00	Thin Gold Vermeil L... georgiedesigns $38.00	Golden - Fine Art ... IoanaPhotograp... $15.00
Vintage Victorian S... localevintage $139.00	Classy statement..g... indieboheme $11.00	La Sevillana Brushe... OneWorldTwoHan... $28.00	topaz brown glass a... Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Hold the Front Page!

This beautiful treasury by Small Earth Vintage, featuring my Art Deco Trifari dress clip, made it to the front page of Etsy last week - my first time on the front page! I couldn't help getting quite excited - and it was wonderful when lots of people visited my little shop and favourited items. I was even more pleased when this lovely dress clip sold within hours and is now winging it's way to Australia. The feeling of being connected with fellow Etsyans all over the world never ceases to give me a thrill!

White Drop with Bra... Sumikoshop $21.00	Faceted Sterling Si... juliegarland $28.00	Bare Tree Through T... ScarletBeautif... $9.00	Vintage Trifari 193... englishrosevin... $35.00
a city growing in m... studiobeerhors... $75.00	vintage 50's st... thegreedyseagu... $65.00	Vehement Victorian ... undertheroot $44.00	IKAT Linen and Silk... bestillshop $99.00
Cool Matte Aluminum... BibbysRocket $148.00	Flutter - 8.5 x 11 ... shellieartist $20.00	Pale Grey Glass and... fiveforty $26.00	Hot Sale - Shorts g... MyLolaFashion $45.00
25% off barn sale v... Luncheonettevi... $13.50	Stained Glass Panel... glassetc $26.00	4.59 Inch Smoky Pur... GlimmeringGems $259.00	Vintage clothes bru... sovietvintage $39.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

A Cornish Holiday

Not surprisingly my new camera had quite a work-out in Cornwall. Beautiful skies, seas, thatched cottages, oh my it was difficult to put it down long enough to eat a cream tea. Still, somehow I managed it rather more times than my waistline will thank me for.





The Lizard peninsular was just as I remembered - beautiful, peaceful and unspoilt. This little harbour at Coverack is typical of the area - no wonder we only left the Lizard once - an abortive trip to Lands End, now blocked off from public access unless you're prepared to pay a fee and walk through an arcade of shops. Gone are the days when you could just park up and wander around the rocks at your leisure. Gosh I feel old - I still remember being able to walk around the stones at Stonehenge!

Is this not the loveliest view from a cafe? Those rocks are Lizard Point (the most southerly in mainland Britain) and the view is from the Polpeor Cafe - very conveniently situated on top of the cliffs. We're always on the look out for dog-friendly cafes and this one was a real gem. That's not us outside by the way, we're tucked up inside out of the wind.

Under the table is a great place to be! You never know what little tid bits will come your way if you're very patient.

Our holiday turned into a bit of a festival of food (as usual) and here we did very well indeed - the homemade doughnuts were a triumph but best of all was the Jubilee - homemade meringue with apple and blackberry compote, Cornish clotted cream and vanilla ice cream - oh boy. Sorry there's no pic - I only thought about photographing it after it was gone - I just couldn't help myself - I did consider getting another but even I was unable to confont that possibility without feeling a little nauseous!

A walk out to the Loe Bar from Helston takes you through piney Degibna wood and past Loe pool - a large freshwater lake situated behind the Loe Bar - formed long ago the sand bar acts like a huge dam shielding the pool from the sea.

The sea, the sea - just beyond that distant sand bar. I remember taking this walk when I was a child and it fixed in my mind as a most extraordinary and unexpected place - a lake nestled amoungst woodland but just behind the beach. I wanted to see if I could find it again and I'm happy to say the place has lost none of its magic.

This was quite a walk for our little fella (he's 15 now) so we were more than glad to see this sign halfway back to the car. It had nothing to do with our cream tea addiction, honest!

I think this is the best cream tea I've ever had. Maybe the unexpected cream tea is always the best? Especially when you're on your way back from a long hot walk. Sitting in the garden at Degibna Farm we were treated to homemade elderflower and ginger cordial followed by the most delicious warm scones with homemade strawberry jam, Cornish clotted cream and tea served in a beautiful assortment of vintage china - well it just felt like heaven! As you can see my hubby's looking pretty pleased too.

And which, I wonder, is the best cream tea? Cornish or Devonshire?

This was an earlier stop in Devon at the little fishing village of Beer - The Captain's Cottage tea room (also doggy friendly) serves enormous cups of tea with their scones in a pretty little cottage setting.

After extensive research (which I'm sure is not yet over) - it seems to me that it doesn't matter what county you're in - a good cream tea is a good cream tea!