A New Cyber-Samper: God is a Trick of the Light

Dear Friend,

It's been a while since I've created a new cyber-sampler. A few days ago I read a post by Ellen Painter Dollar that was so good I wanted to savor it. I pulled up this picture of a rainbow that I took last year and added my favorite quote from the post to it. 

Read the entire post here.

Have a blessed weekend!

Peace & Joy,

Adriana

Cyber-Samplers for Just One Train Wreck After Another

My friend Tim Fall over at Just One Train Wreck After Another has posted a couple of my designs today. I'm so excited! 

I like to call my quote pictures "cyber-samplers" because I used to create needlework samplers as gifts before I discovered the internet. The process of creating quote pictures feels similar to me. I get a thrill out of matching a quote to just the right image. And it's really fun to create a cyber-sampler surprise for a blog friend after he or she posts an especially quotable quote. I'm learning as I go! I'm sure I would benefit from some lessons in computer graphics; if you have any experience with such things, I would appreciate your tips!

The following two images are not the cyber-samplers I made for the Train Wreck; they are the photos I started with. I took these photos in a town near my home. Tim is asking his readers to vote on the images at his blog today. So please go over to the Train Wreck and vote, then read his great post on lust that inspired me!

New Cyber Samplers

I made these samplers over the weekend. I pinned them to Pinterest, but I just realized that they are not linked correctly since I pinned them from my private blog! The quote is from Emma by Jane Austen.

Permission is granted to pin this image to Pinterest.

I made the one above first. It is a picture I took last fall while on my way to take my kids to the dentist. I pulled the car to the side of the road and jumped out to snap a shot. When I read this quote on Sunday morning, I knew I had a match. I have over 11,000 pictures on file; many of them are waiting to be coupled with the right quote.

Permission is granted to pin this image to Pinterest.

My kids preferred this periwinkle pencil sketch version. I suppose you can never go wrong with periwinkle! 

There. Now I'll just click publish and I can pin these quotes correctly. Hope everyone is having a great day!

To see more of my cyber-sampler creations on Pinterest click HERE.

Invisible Friendship

Recently, I found some letters. 

Written by hand. 

A whole correspondence from across two continents, spanning seven years between my best friend and me. (I now have both sets.)

I uncovered them from deep storage and I'm in the process of carefully reading each one.

Finding these letters was an event. I expect they will find their way into my blog posts for quite some time.

This morning, as I set out to walk through the cold, crunchy fields near my home, I pondered this quote which I had copied into a letter in January of 1995:

Familiarity sometimes renders people physically invisible, for you find yourself talking to the heart -- to the essence . . . rather than to the face. ~Michael Welzenbach

I understand this quote is referring to when you are in someone's actual presence and you know the person so well they become physically invisible to you. You don't notice their "warts," so to speak. 

But to me, the quote describes the way I used to feel about receiving letters from my dear friend, Jeni. We were forced apart physically through life circumstances, yet through our letters we drew closer than ever before.

And that is how I've come to feel about blogging. We sit behind our computer screens and we share  what matters to us. Bit by bit we crack open the door of our souls and allow others to peer in.

I have always been more transparent in letters than I am able to be in person. (Maybe this is also why I often think of the writers of the classics as my personal friends.)

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm into making what I call "cyber-samplers" lately. Here's a new one for you --

Love to all,

Adriana

Cyber-Samplers for 12/12/12

Nearly blinded myself this morning while attempting to capture this shot.

Took this of my son while on a camping trip last summer.

Made this with a paper bag on the kitchen floor.

I've been having a blast making little quote pictures lately. If I hone in on your favorite quote, I'll probably be sending you one. (If I know your email address, that is!) When I was a teenager, I cross-stitched little designs and sent them to my friends in the mail. I've come to think of what I'm doing now as as "cyber-stitchery"! What you see here are "cyber-samplers".

When I hear a person say they love a certain quote, I try to really pay attention to it. The quote will usually reveal something essential about that person, something he or she may never articulate to me any other way.

 Made this with a silk apron which has "France 1919" embroidered on the pocket.

I always read with a sharp #2 Ticonderoga. My pencil also serves as a bookmark. 

On my blog you will only see cyber-stitchery from quotes that I've come upon in my reading -- stuff I've underlined and reread and pondered on my own. This is a little rule I follow because while it's fun to skip over to Pinterest or Wikiquote and grab a quote I like, there is nothing quite like scaling a mountainous tome in a hungry search for a morsel of nourishment. Something about that whole process makes a quote much more memorable and personal to me. If feels like it's mine.

For this one I used some red Christmas wrap with white dots. 

Took this picture on one of my morning walks this past year. 

Take care dear ones.

Oh and I nearly forgot -- Happy 12/12/12!

This is a good day to do something you'd like to be remembered by!

Love to all!

~ Adriana

p.s. Did I invent two new terms? I haven't noticed anyone else use "cyber-stitchery" or "cyber-sampler" before. Which do you like best?

This is a portion of a sampler I made in 1996.

p.s.s. If I DO send you a quote via email, It's a gift. Please don't feel obligated to stick it on your blog or anything! (But you certainly may if you want to.) No need to reference me in your post, my  blog-signature is already on the stuff I make.