Art for the Heart

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My top vote getter in the Single Flower online challenge.

Looking at a photo and going, “Oh, that’s nice” is ok, but I’d rather get the Oohs and Aahs synonymous with watching fireworks, when people look at my work.  Even when I’m selecting images for my online galleries, if I don’t feel a ‘Wow’ factor, that’s evidence I should pass on the shot and look for something else.

Interestingly, my enthusiasm with photography occurred just before the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1987.  My wife and I had just returned home from the Hawaiian vacation which had prompted me to get my first 35mm SLR, when the quake struck.  During the capture of over 28,000 images since then, I’ve felt the earth move under my feet many times when getting that ‘perfect’ shot.

Because I focused my efforts on nature originally, and especially flowers, when I was looking for a business name, it was only natural to pick something that reflected my interests.  I tried hard to create sensational images of flowers blooming but didn’t shy away from other subject matter so Bloomsations and More seemed like a good fit.

More recently, I’ve found myself enjoying the practice of combining photos with words and therefore have launched two Facebook pages to showcase those efforts.  Captioned Critters is my attempt at matching cute sayings with even cuter animal shots while with The Quote Boat, I  seek to meld non-animal photos with words that may make you stop and think or laugh out loud.

Don’t Complain, It was Free

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Tethered Warrior (c) Bloomsations and More

Tethered Warrior (c) Bloomsations and More

I knew the item wasn’t good enough to sell but I gave it to her anyway…sort of.  I had donated a photographic print for an office party as a way of promoting Bloomsations and More, my photography business.  The winner chose this image of a Bald Eagle as their prize and as I was working on the framing, I noticed marks on the matting.

Had I been entering it in a juried photo competition or trying to sell it at a craft fair, a trip to the photography supply store for a new mat would have been in order, and I knew it.  It wasn’t a questionable flaw in my mind, yet I started rationalizing away the right thing to do.  After all, it was free.

In thinking about this situation, what grabs my attention most is realizing how easily I could allow something to move me away from my own chosen course of behavior.  I had a business standard, based on certain beliefs, that I was willing to toss aside with hardly a second thought.  Could this be something mankind faces universally?  Has anything like it ever happened to you?

Annette received her prize on time as promised and was thrilled with the image.  I let her know I’d be changing out the mat and a couple of days later, all was done.  She was ecstatic, while I was left to wonder if she would have recognized the difference if I hadn’t changed the matting, and more importantly, why I had ever considered such an outcome.

Eight is Enough?

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How many homes will we live in?  When we celebrated our 46th anniversary last year, the count was eight, if you don’t count the 60 days in a hotel between residence 7 & 8, but who knows what the future holds.  From San Clemente to Hercules, we’ve stayed in California and also near the ocean in most locations.

Starting in Glendora, we rented an apartment as our first home.  When Scott was welcomed into the Marine Corp during the draft days of the Vietnam war, we moved to San Clemente and continued to rent, four different places.

One day we headed to Valencia for a day at Magic Mountain, never realizing we were about to end our stay near President Nixon’s Western White House.  Several wrong turns later, we ended up in Ventura and after a nice lunch decided to look at homes in the area instead of heading to the amusement park.  We not only looked, we bought out first home with the help of a Cal-Vet home loan.

After enjoying our cute little tract home for a few years, we caught the Victorian House bug and when one became available, snatched it up before it could go on the market.  We lived longer in that home than in our six previous residences combined, and only a perceived need for a change of work scenery drove us to the Bay Area and our current home in Hercules.

After 30 years in our relatively small townhome,  Scott started kidding Ellen about moving to Waco, Texas and having Chip and Joanna Gaines get us a Fixer Upper.  A family reunion of sorts, with a cousin however, brought a different potential destination to our attention and suddenly Idaho or Eastern Washington loomed as the next step of our journey.

Will we retire in Hayden, Utah?  Is Cheney, Washington calling our names?  There are a whole lot of possibilities and perhaps the only one we’ve ruled out is a tiny home.  We enjoy watching the TV show but can’t imagine trying to squeeze into something smaller than what we’ve got now.

 

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

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Could a love for floral arranging be the result of listening to musical hits over the years with flowers in the title?  Maybe a steady diet of such chart toppers as Days of Wine and Roses by Henry Mancini (1962); the ‘classic’, Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Tiny Tim (1968); (I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson (1971); and  The Rose by Bette Middler (1979) sparked a horticultural awakening.

Or perhaps it was the orange blossoms behind her childhood home, at least until the grove was leveled to make way for an elementary school, that won her over to many ground breaking floral experiences or maybe that floral gift of daisies her boyfriend gave her to proclaim his affection. Whatever the cause, life at the McIntyre home has never been without the touch of floral beauty for long.

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Stargazer Lilys

One of the things I like best about my wife’s floral arrangements is the opportunity to get my camera out and get creative.  I have especially enjoyed working with Stargazers and created a gallery of images taken only from this arrangement.

The Yarn Knut Knitteth

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It’s never dull for 2 Elderpreneurs.  This week’s project is the launch of Ellen’s knitting business, The Yarn Knut.  She loves knitting and has been creating hats and blankets as gifts for the babies in our life for several years.  Recently, a friend asked if she’d make one for her and a business was born.IMG_17363-edtd

The Facebook page launched earlier today and the Grand Opening of her Etsy store is days (or maybe hours) away.  Initially, there will be two or three different types of baby hats, such as her Polar Bear classic.

As this post is published, there are 12 Likes of the Facebook page.  As a special incentive to like the page now, if you’re one of the first 100 people to like Ellen’s page, you’ll be one of the next 88 to do so.

Rhymes with Gaily

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So the 2 Elderpreneurs were watching ‘My Boyfriends’ Dogs‘ on Hallmark and one of us began to wonder where a particular scene was filmed.  As two characters (Bailey Daley and a love interest) walked through a quaint business section, Scott caught the name of a couple of the businesses and searched online.  Turns out it they were at Osprey Village in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Also searched for the author’s blog (Dandi Daley Mackall) and found the post she wrote sharing how Hallmark was going to be making her movie.  That must have been so exciting for her.  Scott may have to get in touch with the author since writing is one of his interests.  Plus he has wanted to help his dad get his novels published.  That’s right, novels.  Pop has six or seven completed and is always working on another one.  And that’s definitely a topic for another post.

 

An Ephiphany of Sorts

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When the idea for this site first came to mind, stories of the future were what I expected we’d post, but that’s changed.  Ellen and I recently shared our Sapphire anniversary (leave a comment if you know which one that is) and it has dawned on me that there’s a lot of pretty neat history in those years.  Some of it will be finding their way to these pages.

Pets, homes, jobs, vacations, children, birthdays, anniversaries, and so much more have filled our journey so far.  We have rejoiced or cried through events that met all the pledges of our marriage vows; sickness and health, riches and poverty, and good and bad times.  So this journal can’t be about what lies ahead and tell the whole story.  Instead it will weave our history into a record we hope you’ll want to read and share.

 

Waving Hello

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Introductions can be nice, especially if you don’t know the other person, and if you’re reading this post, our first, you may not know us very well.  So, welcome!  We’re Scott & Ellen McIntyre and it’s good to have you here, though actually we’re not looking at you while we introduce ourselves, so that’s a little weird.

There’s so much to share when people meet which is one of the reasons we hope you’ll come back regularly and of course we’d like to get to know you too.  Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question here, or contact us via email.